Difficulty: fair
Duration: 10 - 20 minutes

Tools needed to change a back wheel: Flat spanner to detach the wheel axle (if you don't have a quick release system).

Vocabulary:

Quick release: A wheel's quick release is a system allowing for it to be attached and released by hand without tools. The quick release mechanism is found on the wheel axle (in the middle) and consists of a little level which you need to lower or lift to attach or release the wheel.

Cassette: The cassette is the name given to the chainwheels found at the back, i.e. on the wheel axle. The cassette has a pyramid shape and generally contains 6 to 7 chainwheels.

Take off you bike's rear wheel

Before starting to take off the rear wheel, you must consider the gears, adjusting them until you reach the smallest chainwheel, both at the front and the back. This will allow you to decrease chain tension and thus take off the wheel more easily.

If you have a v-brake (with brake pads), you must also loosen the brake, by pushing on it and removing the small round metallic part from its notch, situated just above the tyre.

If you have a disk brake, you will just need to be careful not to tighten the brake whilst your wheel (and therefore the disc) is not on the bike.

If you have a quick release system, lift the little level by hand and then turn it anti-clockwise to loosen it. If you do not have this system, use a spanner to loosen the bolts on either side of the wheel axle.

Once the wheel has been loosened, you will be able to take it off by moving it to the bottom or back (according to the fork end, which is the notch in which the wheel axle is blocked).

You do not have to remove the chain or your derailleur to take off your wheel (which would be a very lengthy process). Once the wheel axle has been removed from the fork ends (their notches in the frame), you will be able to take off the whole wheel easily, taking care that the chain does not hook onto the cassette.

Putting on a back wheel.

Most of the time, your wheel will already have an axle. If this is not the case, you will need to insert one through the hub of your wheel (central part), as shown in the first seconds of the video.

Putting on a back wheel is not an insurmountable task, you must just take care over one thing: positioning the chain correctly on the cassette. To do this, the wheel must be placed in the middle of the chain. The upper part of the chain must be placed on the cassette, and the lower part of the chain must be placed below the cassette without touching it.

Once the upper part has been positioned on the cassette, you can insert your axle into the frame fork ends (the two notches either side of the frame).
Once the wheel has been correctly installed, all that remains is to tighten the axle (by turning the level and then pushing it down for a quick release system, or by tightening the two bolts with the aid of a spanner, turning clockwise, for a traditional axle.) Then, if you have a V-brake, put the brake back in place as it was when you removed it (like on the video).

Finally, check with a few pedals whether your wheel is turning correctly and straight (if this is not the case, the wheel has not been installed correctly in the frame fork dropouts) and check that your wheel is tight.

Video:
Credit Dagsit Nicolas Boutteville
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